


Breakdown

by Lockrhythm



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire | Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Versions
Genre: Angst, Delta Episode, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 18:54:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20953280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lockrhythm/pseuds/Lockrhythm
Summary: The adrenaline of the ORAS Delta Episode wears off and May… copes.





	Breakdown

May flopped onto her bed, bone weary. The past two days had been exhausting, flying Latias from one city to another and back again, just to stop a world-ending catastrophe. It would not have been as bad had Zinnia just outright  _ said _ what had to be done. Nooo. Instead, May had to go on a hunt here and there and wear her Pokemon out. 

Now with a pact with Rayquaza, and Deoxys keeping Kyogre company as bytes of data in her PC, she had the opportunity to just rest. 

Shivers began trembling through her body, and she was glad her mom had agreed she looked tired and therefore would not be coming to bother her. May knew what the trembles were: shock. She’d gone through the same adrenaline crash after Kyogre. There had been nobody to pick up the pieces. Nobody who understood. Nobody who cared. 

Nobody except her pokemon.

Exactly like last time, she released Blaziken and Mightyena, her two longest partners. They appeared in the darkened room and understood. Blaziken gathered her in his arms and sat against the wall on the floor, so that her back was to his chest and his arms wrapped protectively around her. Mightyena lay on her outstretched legs, a comforting weight.

They stayed there, in the growing dark, until her trembles began to fade and tears began to fall instead. 

How was it fair? She was  _ fourteen  _ years old. It didn’t matter that she’d vanquished Kyogre the year before; it didn’t matter that she had become the youngest champion ever just last month.  _ It didn’t matter _ . She was a child, and there were so many more adults with the necessary life experience and strength to do what she never should have had to.

There was a knock at the door and voices came from below. 

May wiped the tears from her eyes and managed to slow her breathing. Just in time because there was a soft but insistent knock at her bedroom door. 

Mightyena and Blaziken walked her the fourteen steps, pressing against her comfortably. She flicked on the lights before opening the door. She blinked in surprise at Steven standing there. 

“May,” he breathed. “You’re alright.”

She blinked dumbly at him again and moved aside to let him enter and the door to close. Steven Stone was here. Steven Stone was standing in her bedroom. For some reason. 

“I saw you fly into space,” Steven breathed, drinking in her sight like he couldn’t believe she was safe. 

_ He saw? How? There were no TV cameras in space. The catastrophe was not as visible as Kyogre’s storm and therefore not televised or even known. She’d gone to the littleonids meteorite show just like everyone else and put on a good face. _

Her confusion must have showed because he answered her unspoken question. “I saw you from the Mossdeep Space Center. When you went up there, riding on Rayquaza… It should have been me.”

“Yes, it should have,” she whispered. 

Steven reeled back, as if stuck. She didn’t give him time to recover. 

“It should have been you, an adult, instead of me. It should have been Wallace, a draconid, instead of me.” Her voice was steadying with every word, getting louder too. “It should have been  _ you _ to go, instead of  _ calling _ Wallace, instead of standing around  _ thinking  _ about the next step.  _ You _ should have gone and chased after her like I did.  _ You  _ should have gone to face Rayquaza.  _ You _ should have gone down to subdue Kyogre. Not some random twelve year old who had no idea what she was doing! No! It is the  _ Champion’s responsibility  _ to care for the pokemon and  _ people _ of the region. The  _ Champion _ should not be foisting off duty to some kid who had started her journey not eight months earlier. The  _ Champion  _ should not be sending children to  _ die _ facing gods below the seas.” The end of her tirade had grown weary again, and by the end of it, May was crying, and Blaziken had his arms wrapped around her in a hug from behind. “I shouldn’t have been there.”

“You’re right.” 

May didn’t look up. May didn’t even open her eyes. 

“You’re right,” Steven said again. “You shouldn’t have had to risk your life. You were  _ twelve _ . It should have been my job and my responsibility. All of it should have been my responsibility.” He chuckled darkly to himself. “I was never any good at being Champion.”

May looked up, startled that he had agreed with her. Tears still brimmed in her eyes and blurred her vision, but she could still see the self-hate etched in every line of Steven’s hunch, the self-loathing on his face. 

“I’m sorry I put any of it on you at all. It shouldn’t have been your burden to bear.” He backed up a step. “I- I’ll leave now. I can show myself out. I won’t trouble you again.” And he was gone, her door closing softly behind him and the front door following not long after, presumably after rushed excuses to her mother. 

May fell to her knees and sobbed. 

* * *

Some time later:

> Dear May, 
> 
> Everything you said that night was right. I am not fit to be Champion, and so I leave that title to you. I do not expect to return to my home anytime soon, but if you should need help, rely on your Elite Four and Wallace. They know better than I how the League should be run. And that leads me to my request. I know I have no right to ask anything of you after all that has happened, but I hope you will do me the honor of taking the pokeball on my desk. The Beldum inside will protect you where I have failed, and I hope you will treat it like one of your own. 
> 
> I hope we will meet again in better circumstances,
> 
> Steven Stone. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! The idea of how May would be affected popped into my head during my fourth playthrough of Alpha Sapphire. Though I usually play as Brendan, I felt that he would be in that little-kid stage where near-death experiences are cool, kind of like how skateboarding injuries and broken bones and casts are cool.
> 
> Since kids in the Pokemon world start their journeys at age eleven, facing down the gods of the world would be traumatic and life-changing, and why would the CHAMPION send a CHILD to do his job???
> 
> I'm sorry. It's just really infuriating for me.


End file.
